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People Mis-Naming Railway Station/Companies - Habit?

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krus_aragon

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Llandaff North although it was never named as such. Barry Town, another misnomer. Both are still in common use.
I'm probably guilty of both of those.

I do tend to refer to Colwyn Bay as just "Colwyn", which was the name of the station until the 1870s. I use that term for the town as a whole, too.
 
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ac6000cw

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It's not just old station names - around Cambridge, I've already heard people using the term 'Cambridge Central' in conversation as a way of differentiating the main station from the new 'North' one.
 

Cherry_Picker

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I've heard "Aylesbury Town and Aylesbury Vale Parkway" announced by a driver on Chiltern before which makes sense I guess but I'm not sure the Town suffix was ever official. Wiki suggests BR referred to as Aylesbury Town between 1948 & 1960 but I don't think it was officially named that

More likely the driver has been burned by passengers staying on the train until Vale Parkway and then demanding to know where the town centre is.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Its been a long time since I have been to Colchester but certainly then "North Station" was the name used in bus timetables and destination boards.
The only person I've ever met from Colchester referred to the "Town" station and the "Mainline" station. "Main Line" being a suffix unique to Acton Main Line (which isn't that useful if you actually want to visit Acton!)
 

mrcheek

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When Worle station was built on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare, they opened a business park next door called "Worle Parkway". Its amazing how many people call the station Worle Parkway even though it has only ever been Worle
 

sd0733

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When I worked in Birmingham I had a customer asking for a train to Owen Street, which was the name of Tipton station some 40 years previous.
There is a New Street guard who always announces Tipton Owen Street. He probably wasnt born when it closed!
 

Bookd

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Acton has a couple of decent pubs, but is not exactly a tourist attraction;it does however have a variety of stations all of which are a fair walk from the town.Acton Town underground is probably the best, and Main Line is nowhere near.
The only person I've ever met from Colchester referred to the "Town" station and the "Mainline" station. "Main Line" being a suffix unique to Acton Main Line (which isn't that useful if you actually want to visit Acton!)
 

DanTrain

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The only person I've ever met from Colchester referred to the "Town" station and the "Mainline" station. "Main Line" being a suffix unique to Acton Main Line (which isn't that useful if you actually want to visit Acton!)
Probably because all 4 compass points, Town and Central are already in use :lol:
 

61653 HTAFC

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Probably because all 4 compass points, Town and Central are already in use :lol:
They could have followed the convention of Wigan North Western or Sheffield Midland, and called it Acton Great Western... but that would be confusing now the service is provided by TfL Rail. "Acton Elizabeth Line" anyone? :lol:
 

DanTrain

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They could have followed the convention of Wigan North Western or Sheffield Midland, and called it Acton Great Western... but that would be confusing now the service is provided by TfL Rail. "Acton Elizabeth Line" anyone? :lol:
Well we name everything else after monarchs so why not stations ;)

Wait I’ve just remembered all the ‘Victoria’ suffixes - Acton Elizabeth would work :lol:
 

HowardGWR

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Nobody local refers to Bath Spa as that and I don't know why GWR calls it that, as there is no Queens Square (or Green Park) any longer. Well there is, but it's not a station now. Nobody says Weston Super Mare either, unless you want to earn unfortunate comments.
 

AlbertBeale

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People referring to National Rail services as traveling 'Overground'

If you've lived all your life in London, especially if you're north of the river, where most local trains are "the underground", then if you need to do a local London journey to somewhere which only has "main line" trains (eg most places south of the river), then it was always normal parlance to say something like "I'm going to X, so I'll have to get the overground". All my family, and pretty much all long-time Londoners I know, have referred to "proper" (main line) trains as "the overground", to distinguish them from underground system. It was - and for many still is - the normal terminology, and perfectly natural and understandable. I presume it started - maybe even as a joke somewhere - soon after "the underground" (or should I say "the Underground"?) got started generations back.

It's TfL who've caused confusion and ambiguity by branding the subset of "proper" London train lines they control as "the Overground" with a capital O. (Clearly that decision wasn't taken by actual Londoners!) So now there's the situation of some Londoners of my acquaintance, when referring to getting "the overground", stopping to qualify whether they mean "with a small o" or "with a big O". Indeed, for those not really "following" transport issues, and getting a local train in London only very occasionally, I'd say that most wouldn't know which was officially the Overground and which just the generic "overground". It wouldn't seem important to them.

In this connection (of TfL's branding mania), there's the plan to call Crossrail - if/when it ever happens! - the Elizabeth Line, as though it were part of the Underground system. This, combined with putting the Crossrail route on the tube map but not the Thameslink route, seems destined to cause more confusion and inconvenience for people trying to use the services who're not familiar with all the ins and outs of it,

On a separate subject - I was brought up to call the main station in Edinburgh "Edinburgh Waverley", or even just Waverley. And my Edinburgh friends call it that. But if you try to put "Waverley" in a search on the NRE site - or if you're masochistic enough to try to use their phone line, and ask their phone operators - you'll discover that there is no Waverley, The name isn't recognised as a station name, or even as part of a station name. So are Network Rail right? Have millions of people got it wrong all these years?!
 

Garmoran

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Some posters in a railway forum that I read have a habit of referring to Fort William as "Fort Bill". I have never come across the term used by anyone else, despite long familiarity with the place. (North Americans do insist on calling it "Fort Williams", however)
 

416GSi

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some people still call us Arriva which is understandable as most of the trains haven't changed, but we have been called
Assuming you're talking about Arriva Trains Wales.

It doesn't help that some advance tickets state 'Transport for Wales Only' and then go on and provide the train and seat reservation, as 'xx:xx Arriva Trains Wales'. Someone needs to update the seat reservation systems.
 

naverag

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On a separate subject - I was brought up to call the main station in Edinburgh "Edinburgh Waverley", or even just Waverley. And my Edinburgh friends call it that. But if you try to put "Waverley" in a search on the NRE site - or if you're masochistic enough to try to use their phone line, and ask their phone operators - you'll discover that there is no Waverley, The name isn't recognised as a station name, or even as part of a station name. So are Network Rail right? Have millions of people got it wrong all these years?!

This is a relatively recent change: in 2010 National Rail Enquiries was calling it Edinburgh Waverley, but that had changed by the following year. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/2010020...tionalrail.co.uk:80/stations/edb/details.html
Even now, the Wikipedia article is still titled "Edinburgh Waverley".
 

AlbertBeale

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There are many people who refuse to call Crossrail "Elizabeth Line," me included.

Me too.

Mind you, I still call the Jubilee Line the Fleet Line (as it was due to be until only just before it opened). Some might remember that the then Tory GLC - in a fit of royalist sycophancy - renamed it at the very last moment. Many of the embossed metal plates at stations on other lines, showing the connections with the new line, were already in place, as was much other name-related infrastructure. So there was bureaucratic and financial resistance at LT. What - apparently, according to gossip at the time - made a difference was that Fleet and Jubilee came in the same place in the alphabetical list of lines [NB the H&C was still named as part of the Met in those days], so nothing had to be remade, they just had to stick a different name on top of what was already produced. They also decided that the map colour associated with the line, which had been intended to be grey, would stay the same ... but they'd call it "sliver" instead!

There was some political resistance, and some anti-monarchist groups demonstrated on the day the line opened, and stickered the route diagrams in the carriages, and so on. But it seems to have caught on....
 

AlbertBeale

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frediculous

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One of the station announcers at Bromley South always refers to St Mary Cray as "St Mary's Cray"
 

6Gman

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Some posters in a railway forum that I read have a habit of referring to Fort William as "Fort Bill". I have never come across the term used by anyone else, despite long familiarity with the place. (North Americans do insist on calling it "Fort Williams", however)

You mean An Gearasdan ?

:D

Or, indeed, Inverlochy?
 

Romilly

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The Hidden London website's entry for St Mary Cray says:

Influenced by neighbouring St Paul’s Cray, the district is often mistakenly called ‘St Mary’s Cray’, sometimes even by those who live in the vicinity.
 

bionic

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It's not just old station names - around Cambridge, I've already heard people using the term 'Cambridge Central' in conversation as a way of differentiating the main station from the new 'North' one.

There is nothing "central" about Cambridge station!

One of the station announcers at Bromley South always refers to St Mary Cray as "St Mary's Cray"

I was going to say the same thing!

Some oldies around south London still refer to Crystal Palace as the low level station, so as not to confuse it with the long-closed high level station on the parade.

Not railway related, but the amount or people who mispronounce the Wetherspoon pub chain as 'Witherspoon's' has always made me chuckle.
 

Dr_Paul

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Acton Horn Lane perhaps... it is the only Acton station on that road.

A common mispronunciation is the additional 'i' in Westminster and Upminster, giving 'Westminister' and 'Upminister'. In the days when station staff did the announcements, practically everyone doing them at Hammersmith put in the additional 'i'.

I still refer to 'British Railways' (I never liked the truncated 'Rail') when referring to anything other than the London Underground, the Dockland Railway and the Croydon Tram: what else can one handily call it? I tend to lump in the Overground and the TFL Rail services in with it, rather than seeing them as more closely related to the Underground. I guess I do these things and have never really acknowledged the various railway firms as they make no difference to my travelling in the London area using my Old Codger's Oyster Card, apart from not being able to use the card prior to 09.30 on 'BR' services. Also, I haven't travelled outwith the London area by train for over 30 years, and thus not had to deal with the vagaries of today's rail travel with all the different companies.
 

Gwenllian2001

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There used to be a guard on the South Wales - Portsmouth service who always announced Warminster as 'War Ministry'. Maybe he still does, I haven't used that service recently.
 

SteveM70

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One of the Geordie TPE guards always refers to “Leeds City”
 
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Class! Never knew that. Do people still use Oldbury for Sandwell & Dudley? S&D it must be said is a damned stupid name.
My grandmother, who lived in the Coseley area for all of the 82 years of her life, always called the local station "Deepfields".
 

Matt_pool

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Miseryrail and Northern Fail.

I find Merseyrail to be quite reliable, apart from the overcrowding during rush hour, or when a train breaks down or the signals fail etc the whole Northern Line or Wirral Line grind to a halt for hours!

As for Northern, well, they are just failures!
 
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